Fuel Additives

[jimpwk]

My V40 has done 90,000 miles. Is there any value in putting petrol additive in the tank?

Jim

[JDS60R]

I'm sorry this reply is long but you bring up an important topic that when ignored causes many Volvo owners much pain and expense. ( The short answer is "Yes -and use a quality one"- I like Amsoil P.I. -opinions of others will vary)

At 90K miles it is important to consider deposit control. Set a side a day to do an oil change. A week or so before put in a quality combustion chamber/valve/injector cleaner in the gas/petrol tank. Drive at least 3/4 of the treated fuel through the system.(Keep in mind the cheaper or no name brands can be very harmful - you should invest in a larger brand name ) .

On the day of the oil change do an induction cleaning first (i.e. SeaFoam or other top brand name) . This treatment includes a very slow drip into the intake as the engine is running. Do not pour it in quickly as motor damage can occur. Do not drive or race the engine. Let it idle out. ( You will need to be outside as the black then white smoke will be of great volume - expect 5 minutes of smoking )

Once the induction cleaning is done you need to clean the inside of the motor. A quality engine flush is very improtant here. You will put it in the engine and let it idle 15-20 minutes per the direction. Then do a complete oil change. Let everything drip out - do not rush. Use a quality synthetic and a quality filter.

Its important to remember that this can be a great help to the motor but offers 3 ways to hurt it as well.
The combustion cleaner must be top quality - we use Amsoil, Techron or SeaFoam at their suggested dose - not more.

The induction cleaner must be introduced slowly. I have a bottle I hang that lets me control the drip speed with a little brass valve in the line I hook up to a vacuum source. Too much cleaner, too quickly will cause a hydro lock and then you get to pay for a new motor. The induction cleaner is usually a liquid that is a penetrating solvent with lubricant. You just need to keep the valves and pistons wet - not soaked. There is no advantage to pouring it in quickly - actually a slow continuous soak is better. Let it sit 10 minutes after you have fully soaked it before starting up again. We pull the plugs and put some (two capfuls or so - want to get the rings and piston tops wet) in each combustion chamber before starting the induction cleaning. This really cleans the piston tops and lets us see the plugs to determine any engine issues or replace plugs before moving on.

The oil flush is critical as well. You must use a quality product so you don't hurt the seals. We have great luck with the Amsoil product . Seafoam works but I like how quick the Amsoil works with no seal issues to date. Keeping in mind that if sludge is the only thing keeping the oil in you motor (coating cracked seals) then it will leak if you clean it.

These three treatments keep you from having to do flame trap/PCV work often.
The best thing you can do is run the car on a top quality synthetic lubricants. My customers who consitently use synthetic fluids (oil,trans,power steering, bevel gear and rear diff -Haldex AOD is a semi synth by design) usually are rewarded by long and happy Volvo ownership. You loose a sensor here and there but most of them are pretty easy to get to (with the exception of knock sensors ) .

Long term use with low quaity or average lubricants will cost you more in the long run. The sooner you start with quality lubricants the longer the vehicle will last and perform for you. If you can switch before 100K you will see the benefit. After that you have to look at it on a case by case basis. I have inspected 116K motors that look and perform worse that some of my customers with over 300K miles. If you are faithful with dino oil and change it frequently the motor can still be in pretty good shape. This,unfortunately, is not what we see. When we discuss when the oil was/is changed- most custmoers advise us that life is too busy to be concerned with this detail and they change it when they feel it needs it and no attention is paid to dash warning. This is unfortunate but has kept my sideline repair business open for 28 years.

[JDS60R]

As we are in different countries perhaps one of the moderators whoa re located closer to you can chime in to let us know the quality cleaners and flushes that are available near you.

I know we spoke mostly about the motor/engine and the benefits of quality synthetics but the benefits are also very obvious in the transmission, differentials etc.

We switch everything to synthetic when the car reached 1200 miles. I do not approve of the performance and suggested life of most of the Volvo fluids. You can stay with their radiator fluid (buy the premix or use distilled water only - never tap) and with their current power steering fluid which is Synthetic Pentosin CHF 11S or the AOD fluid.

This is not a slam against Volvo - we see this with every manufacturer- well built cars with less than quality lubricants.

[j_cd]

I was going to dump in a bottle of Amsoil engine flush, but now that I've got a slow oil leak, I decided not to use it yet. I did try a bottle of the Amsoil PI (Performance Improver) fuel additive though. The day after dumping it in, I had a ticking valve lifter that didn't want to stop 3 different times when starting the engine. After driving the ticking stopped each time, and now it's gone.

I asked my neighbor about this. He said that when one side of a valve is cleaned it will tick until the other side is clear. So I can testify that the PI does noticeably clean the combustion chamber, etc...